On Politics: Mass shootings on mainland bring Hawaii’s stringent gun laws into sharper focus

Mass shootings, such as the two over the last two weeks in Georgia and Colorado, once again shock us with the random, senseless death of gun violence — although it is doubtful the recognition will stop the carnage.

In fact, while mass shootings, defined as a murderer killing four or more, on a national basis account for less than 2% of gun deaths, they focus attention on the danger of guns.

They also cause a spike in gun ownership.

Here in Hawaii, we are setting new records in gun ownership. Last week the state attorney general released the annual report on gun ownership. It was nothing but bad news.

The report showed a 35.5% increase in gun ownership. That translates into 39,467 firearms registered during 2019. Half were firearms transferred from out of state while the remaining weapons were gun owners transferring ownership.

According to the report: “Independent estimates made during the late-1990s by the Department of the Attorney General and the City and County of Honolulu Police Department conservatively placed the number of privately owned firearms in Hawaii at ‘at least’ one million.”

All this is bad because the more guns out there mean more killing.

A recent American Journal of Medicine report found, “Among the 27 developed countries, there was a significant positive correlation between guns per capita per country and the rate of firearm-related deaths.

“The number of guns per capita per country was a strong and independent predictor of firearm-related death in a given country.”

In Hawaii, according to the Gifford Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, someone in Hawaii is killed with a gun every eight days.

More than 72% of the Hawaii gun deaths are suicides. The center reported from 2008 to 2017, 358 people in Hawaii died from gun-related suicide. During that same time period in Hawaii, 54 people under the age of 25 were killed by a gun.

Hawaii earns high marks from the Gifford Law Center, which said: “Hawaii has taken courageous steps to protect its residents, enacting some of the strongest gun laws in the country and setting an example for other states.

“The state requires gun purchasers to obtain a license and complete a firearm safety course. In 2017, Hawaii had the lowest gun death rate in the country and exported crime guns at the third-lowest rate.”

It is interesting that in the last year studied in the AG report, Hawaii denied 741 gun permit applications. The reasons ranged from using marijuana, including medical marijuana in 174 cases, to 48 applicants having an assault record, to 29 cases of abuse of a family member. Hawaii applicants were also denied gun permits for being AWOL from the military, disorderly conduct, domestic battery or being enrolled in an anger management or alcohol treatment program.

Today, Hawaii has the fourth-lowest rate of gun deaths in the nation and recently prevailed in federal court, stopping an attempt to allow a man to carry a loaded gun in public, although the plaintiff plans to appeal the “right to carry” decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Even with its many troubles, Hawaii does a good job keeping its citizens from being shot. And that’s a good thing.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.